Not a Boring Appointment

I had in my head a post to write tonight, pondering the changes that can happen in one year.

I'll get to that in a while, but I have to be newsy first! See, I'm 37 weeks today, and I had one of my weekly appointments today. The appointments have all been pretty in-and-out, and I thought today would be no exception. I did have Dr. J, my favorite who is the best at listening, so I decided to write out my "Birth Preferences" so she could look them over and give input. Turns out, we didn't get to that.

First of all, I had a 3:15pm appointment time, different from the norm lately when they've been mostly in the morning so Erich could go. We figured he'd be okay to miss this one. However, as the ice storm rolled into town, he decided to come home early so he could go to the appointment and work a little from home afterward.

He met me at the office and we waited at least 40 minutes before I got called back. I pulled out my little alarm clock that I use for piano lessons which happens to have a thermometer and learned that it was almost SEVENTY-SEVEN DEGREES FAHRENHEIT in there. Yeah, I was boiling. Why would they try to cook the pregnant ladies? I don't get it. Anyway, I went back with the nurse, gave my urine specimen and she had me get on the scale right away. After many weeks of varying by one pound up and down, today I was up four pounds. I was not very surprised as I have been very swollen lately, though not as badly in the last few days. Then she took my blood pressure and frowned. At 130/90 it was, in her exact wording, "borderline-ish." Not wanting to sound the preeclampsia alarm prematurely, she said she'd give me a few minutes of sitting down and take it again. Indeed, it was lower just a few minutes later: 120/80.

The nurse got me and Erich into the exam room, and I got ready for the internal exam. Dr. J came in around 4:15 and said that if it weren't so close to "the holiday" (that's Christmas, btw) she would just watch me, but since my blood pressure was so much higher than the 110/52 from early pregnancy AND because there was protein in my urine, she was sending me to Labor & Delivery for monitoring. Ugh. Next came the measurements, and as I scooted to get into position, she poked my lower legs and I admitted I've been swollen, and she seemed concerned. Baby's heartbeat was present and accounted for, she didn't say anything about my belly's measurement, so I assume that's okay. The dreaded internal revealed that I'm not quite a fingertip dilated (so not really at all), but the cervix is soft and the head is down nice and low.

Dr. J gave us a flurry of instructions: go to L&D, hopefully they'll let me go after an hour, come back to the office on Monday, take it easy--let Erich do everything now (so much harder than it seems), blah blah. I have to pat myself on the back here for staying completely calm after a very fleeting moment of OMGWTFBBQ. I knew it was unlikely I would have a baby that day and I knew worrying about it too much would do nothing to help my blood pressure, so I just went with it. It was also at this point I realized how lucky it was that Erich was at my appointment so he could do the short drive to the hospital and be with me through the whole ordeal.

Into the hospital we went, I changed into a gown, peed in a jar, and a nurse hooked me up to the fetal monitors and BP cuff. I had to answer a million questions and get blood drawn. Then we just got to wait, watch TV, surf the web on our phones, etc. Each time the blood pressure cuff went off, I practiced my Hypnobabies techniques, and each time my BP went down. The final reading was 119/65! I'm thinking it helped that I was still and relaxed and it wasn't a burning furnace there in triage. It was fun to hear Lily's heartbeat and all the whooshing sounds when she would move around. It saved me the trouble of telling Erich when I could feel her move! At about 6:10 the nurse came back to say my labs came back normal (yay), my urine was clear and I'm plenty hydrated (yay) and I could go along home. She sent supplies for a 24-hour urine collection (YAAAAYYYYYY), which we can drop off on our way to church for Christmas Eve services, heh.

On the way out, Erich had to make me walk slowly. Oops. "Do I still have to rest?" I wondered aloud. "YES, you still have to REST," said my wonderful, supportive and incredulous husband. That's just the problem--I don't feeeeel like I have to rest. Erich said it's not bed rest or anything, but it is "butt rest." As in, I have to stay on my butt as much as possible. Again, I'm as lazy as the next guy, but I have presents to wrap! A baby's room to organize! This is so much easier said than done.

Aside from all that, I have to say a big thank you to Baby Jesus for letting Lily stay in to cook a bit longer. I want to avoid an induction and/or c-section at all costs, which is much easier if I stay low-risk! I wouldn't mind a 2009 baby, but I'd rather she come on her own when she's ready in 2010.